50th Street station (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)

The 50th Street station is a local station on the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line of the New York City Subway. Located at the intersection of 50th Street and Broadway at the northwest corner of the Theater District, it is served by the 1 train at all times and by the 2 train during late nights.

For other uses, see 50th Street.

 50 Street
 "1" train
New York City Subway station (rapid transit)
Northbound 1 train departing
Station statistics
AddressWest 50th Street & Broadway
New York, NY 10019
BoroughManhattan
LocaleMidtown Manhattan
Coordinates40.761°N 73.984°W / 40.761; -73.984
DivisionA (IRT)[1]
Line   IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line
Services   1 all times (all times)
​   2 late nights (late nights)
TransitBus transport NYCT Bus: M7, M20, M50, M104
Bus transport MTA Bus: BxM2
StructureUnderground
Platforms2 side platforms
Tracks4
Other information
OpenedOctober 27, 1904 (1904-10-27)[2]
Opposite-
direction
transfer		No
Traffic
20198,134,360[3] Increase 0.6%
Rank41 out of 424[3]
Services
Preceding station New York City Subway New York City Subway Following station
59th Street–Columbus Circle
1 all times ​2 late nights
toward Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street
Local		 Times Square–42nd Street
1 all times ​2 late nights
toward South Ferry
"3" train does not stop here
Location
50th Street station (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line) is located in New York City Subway
50th Street station (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)
50th Street station (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line) is located in New York City
50th Street station (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)
50th Street station (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line) is located in New York
50th Street station (IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line)
Track layout

to 59th St–Columbus Circle
to Times Square–42nd St
Street map

Station service legend
Symbol Description
Stops all times Stops all times
Stops late nights only Stops late nights only

The 50th Street station was constructed for the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) as part of the city's first subway line, which was approved in 1900. Construction of the line segment that includes the 50th Street station began on September 19 of the same year. The station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway. The station's platforms have been lengthened since opening.

The 50th Street station contains two side platforms and four tracks; express trains use the inner two tracks to bypass the station. The station was built with tile and mosaic decorations. The platforms contain exits to 50th Street and Broadway and are not connected to each other within fare control.

History
New mosaic replacing the original name plaque
Original Faience plaque

Construction and opening

Planning for a subway line in New York City dates to 1864.[4]: 21  However, development of what would become the city's first subway line did not start until 1894, when the New York State Legislature passed the Rapid Transit Act.[4]: 139–140  The subway plans were drawn up by a team of engineers led by William Barclay Parsons, the Rapid Transit Commission's chief engineer. It called for a subway line from New York City Hall in lower Manhattan to the Upper West Side, where two branches would lead north into the Bronx.[5]: 3  A plan was formally adopted in 1897,[4]: 148  and all legal conflicts concerning the route alignment were resolved near the end of 1899.[4]: 161 

The Rapid Transit Construction Company, organized by John B. McDonald and funded by August Belmont Jr., signed the initial Contract 1 with the Rapid Transit Commission in February 1900,[6] under which it would construct the subway and maintain a 50-year operating lease from the opening of the line.[4]: 165  In 1901, the firm of Heins & LaFarge was hired to design the underground stations.[5]: 4  Belmont incorporated the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) in April 1902 to operate the subway.[4]: 182 

The 50th Street station was constructed as part of the IRT's West Side Line (now the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line) from 47th Street to 60th Street, for which work had begun on September 19, 1900. Work for that section had been awarded to Naughton & Company.[6] By late 1903, the subway was nearly complete, but the IRT Powerhouse and the system's electrical substations were still under construction, delaying the system's opening.[4]: 186 [7] The 50th Street station opened on October 27, 1904, as one of the original 28 stations of the New York City Subway from City Hall to 145th Street on the West Side Branch.[2][4]: 186 

Service changes and station renovations

After the first subway line was completed in 1908,[8] the station was served by local trains along both the West Side (now the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line to Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street) and East Side (now the Lenox Avenue Line). West Side local trains had their southern terminus at City Hall during rush hours and South Ferry at other times, and had their northern terminus at 242nd Street. East Side local trains ran from City Hall to Lenox Avenue (145th Street).[9]

View of station columns

To address overcrowding, in 1909, the New York Public Service Commission proposed lengthening the platforms at stations along the original IRT subway.[10]: 168  As part of a modification to the IRT's construction contracts made on January 18, 1910, the company was to lengthen station platforms to accommodate ten-car express and six-car local trains. In addition to $1.5 million (equivalent to $47.1 million in 2022) spent on platform lengthening, $500,000 (equivalent to $15.7 million in 2022) was spent on building additional entrances and exits. It was anticipated that these improvements would increase capacity by 25 percent.[11]: 15  Platforms at local stations, such as the 50th Street station, were lengthened by between 20 and 30 feet (6.1 and 9.1 m). Both platforms were extended to the north and south.[11]: 110  Six-car local trains began operating in October 1910.[10]: 168  The Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line opened south of Times Square–42nd Street in 1918, and the original line was divided into an "H"-shaped system. The original subway north of Times Square thus became part of the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line, and all local trains were sent to South Ferry.[12]

In December 1922, the Transit Commission approved a $3 million project to lengthen platforms at 14 local stations along the original IRT line, including 50th Street and five other stations on the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line. Platform lengths at these stations would be increased from 225 to 436 feet (69 to 133 m).[13][14] The commission postponed the platform-lengthening project in September 1923, at which point the cost had risen to $5.6 million.[15][16]

Old view of the station with its original ticket booth

The city government took over the IRT's operations on June 12, 1940.[17][18] The IRT routes were given numbered designations in 1948 with the introduction of "R-type" rolling stock, which contained rollsigns with numbered designations for each service. [19] The Broadway route to 242nd Street became known as the 1 and the Lenox Avenue route as the 3.[20]

The original IRT stations north of Times Square could barely fit local trains of five or six cars depending on the configuration of the trains. Stations on the line from 50th Street to 96th Street, excluding the 91st Street station, had their platforms extended in the 1950s to accommodate ten-car trains as part of a $100 million rebuilding program (equivalent to $1,041.9 million in 2022) (equivalent to $1,041.9 million in 2022).[21] The joint venture of Rosoff Bros Inc. and Joseph Meltzer Associates Inc. received a contract to remodel the 50th Street, 59th Street, and 66th Street stations[22] in February 1957.[23] The platform extensions at the local stations were completed by early 1958.[21] Once the project was completed, all 1 trains became local and all 2 and 3 trains became express, and eight-car local trains began operation. Increased and lengthened service was implemented during peak hours on the 1 train on February 6, 1959.[24] Due to the lengthening of the platforms at 86th Street and 96th Street, the intermediate 91st Street station was closed on February 2, 1959, because it was too close to the other two stations.[25][21]

In 1981, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority listed the station among the 69 most deteriorated stations in the subway system.[26]

On September 4, 1987, Alex Cumba fell onto the tracks of the 50th Street station.[27] Bystanders Edwin Ortiz, Jeff Kuhn, and Melvin Shadd jumped onto the tracks and attempted to lift Cumba back onto the platform, which was difficult due to Cumba's weight. The three were able to remove Cumba seconds before the train arrived. A recreation of the story aired on Rescue 911 on September 17, 1991.[28][29]

In April 1988,[30] the New York City Transit Authority (NYCTA) unveiled plans to speed up service on the Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line through the implementation of a skip-stop service: the 9 train.[31] When skip-stop service started in 1989, it was only implemented north of 137th Street–City College on weekdays, and 50th Street was served by both the 1 and the 9.[32][33][34] Skip-stop service ended on May 27, 2005, as a result of a decrease in the number of riders who benefited.[35][36]

Station layout
Entrance to uptown platform
Ground Street level Exit/entrance
Platform level Side platform
Northbound local ← "1" train toward Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street (59th Street–Columbus Circle)
← "2" train toward Wakefield–241st Street late nights (59th Street–Columbus Circle)
Northbound express ← "2" train"3" train do not stop here
Southbound express → "2" train"3" train do not stop here →
Southbound local → "1" train toward South Ferry (Times Square–42nd Street) →
→ "2" train toward Flatbush Avenue–Brooklyn College late nights (Times Square–42nd Street) →
Side platform
Liliana Porter's mosaic

Like other local stations, 50th Street has four tracks and two side platforms.[37] The station is served by the 1 at all times[38] and by the 2 during late nights;[39] the center express tracks are used by the 2 train during daytime hours and the 3 train at all times.[39][40] The station is between 59th Street–Columbus Circle to the north and Times Square–42nd Street to the south.[41] The platforms were originally 200 feet (61 m) long, like at other local stations on the original IRT,[5]: 4 [42]: 8  but as a result of the 1958–1959 platform extension, became 520 feet (160 m) long.[21]

Design

As with other stations built as part of the original IRT, each platform consists of 3-inch-thick (7.6 cm) concrete slabs, beneath which are drainage basins. The original platforms contain circular, cast-iron Doric-style columns spaced every 15 feet (4.6 m), while the platform extensions contain I-beam columns. Additional columns between the tracks, placed atop the transverse arches, support the jack-arched concrete station roofs.[5]: 4 [42]: 8 

The decorative scheme consists of green faience station-name tablets, blue tile bands, a green cornice, and blue plaques.[42]: 36  The mosaic tiles at all original IRT stations were manufactured by the American Encaustic Tile Company, which subcontracted the installations at each station.[42]: 31  The decorative work was performed by tile contractor Manhattan Glass Tile Company and faience contractor Grueby Faience Company.[42]: 36  The ceilings of the original platforms and fare control areas contain plaster molding.[42]: 10  Most of the original tile plaques at this station were removed during remodeling, replaced by much simpler blue, green, and red mosaics with printed letters. One of the original tile plaques has been preserved by the New York Transit Museum.

Entrance to the southbound platform

The station contains Liliana Porter's artwork Alice, The Way Out, a series of mosaics installed in 1994 as part of the MTA Arts & Design program. The mosaics depict characters from Lewis Carroll's novel Alice in Wonderland.[43][44] The mosaics are a reference to the station's location in Manhattan's Theater District. According to former MTA Arts & Design director Sandra Bloodworth, "You see Alice pulling the curtain back in one of the images, and you have the theaters above ground."[44]

Exits

Each platform has same-level fare control at the center and there are no crossovers or crossunders to allow free transfer between directions. Each fare control area has a token booth, turnstile bank, and newsstand. The northbound has four staircases to the streets: two to the northeast corner of 50th Street and Broadway, one to the southeast corner, and one inside a building on the south side of 50th Street midblock between Broadway and Seventh Avenue.[45]

The southbound platform has an exit to an underground shopping arcade on the south side of 50th Street west of Broadway, where the "Nothing Really Matters" bar opened in 2022.[46] Another exit goes to the southern sunken courtyard of Paramount Plaza on the northwest corner of 50th Street and Broadway.[45]

References
  1. "Glossary". Second Avenue Subway Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) (PDF). Vol. 1. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. March 4, 2003. pp. 1–2. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 26, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  2. "Our Subway Open: 150,000 Try It; Mayor McClellan Runs the First Official Train". The New York Times. October 28, 1904. p. 1. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  3. "Facts and Figures: Annual Subway Ridership 2014–2019". Metropolitan Transportation Authority. 2020. Retrieved May 26, 2020.
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  7. "First of Subway Tests; West Side Experimental Trains to be Run by Jan. 1 Broadway Tunnel Tracks Laid, Except on Three Little Sections, to 104th Street -- Power House Delays". The New York Times. November 14, 1903. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on May 5, 2022. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
  8. "Our First Subway Completed At Last — Opening of the Van Cortlandt Extension Finishes System Begun in 1900 — The Job Cost $60,000,000 — A Twenty-Mile Ride from Brooklyn to 242d Street for a Nickel Is Possible Now". The New York Times. August 2, 1908. p. 10. Archived from the original on December 23, 2021. Retrieved November 6, 2016.
  9. Herries, William (1916). Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac. Brooklyn Daily Eagle. p. 119. Archived from the original on May 11, 2021. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
  10. Hood, Clifton (1978). "The Impact of the IRT in New York City" (PDF). Historic American Engineering Record. pp. 146–207 (PDF pp. 147–208). Archived (PDF) from the original on January 17, 2021. Retrieved December 20, 2020. Public Domain This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
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  28. Rescue 911 Episode Guide - Rescue 911 Season Episodes - TV.com
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  36. "Noteworthy – 9 discontinued". May 7, 2005. Archived from the original on May 7, 2005. Retrieved September 18, 2016.
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  43. "Arts for Transit and Urban Design". mta.info. Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Archived from the original on December 12, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
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